


It Transfigures You and Me

by Vadianna



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: (not in the Rowdy Roddy Piper sense though that would be awesome), A little soft at the end, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - They Live, Angst, Faked Death, M/M, Oral Sex, Spoilers for The Rise of Skywalker, That Canon Kiss is referenced and passed over, references to perceived delusions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 18:07:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21912634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vadianna/pseuds/Vadianna
Summary: Two extra scenes that take place during and afterThe Rise of Skywalker.Ren is approached on the ruins of the Death Star by General Hux and asked to explain himself at blasterpoint. The aftermath alters what happens during the final confrontation, and after.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren
Comments: 55
Kudos: 334





	It Transfigures You and Me

**Author's Note:**

> A short alteration to _The Rise of Skywalker_. I woke up thinking about this the morning after seeing the movie, and it is still haunting me two days later.
> 
> Three things:  
> \- That Kiss is still in here, in case you were hoping for something different. I'm contextualizing it as expected for a kylux fic.  
> \- Hux is not actually a Resistance mole here, mostly as a dialogue choice.  
> \- Hux doesn't fully believe in all the things Ren says and does with the Force, and it's implied that he thinks Ren is out of control and delusional, though there's no deep exploration of that.

“Supreme Leader.”

Ren paused, icy water trickling down his neck and face. Under other circumstances, he would… what? Be happy? He was never that. Not for a long time. But he recognized the voice, if not the reason the speaker was here. If Ren really was of two minds, the one that he’d just vowed to embrace told him that this was yet another second chance. The other, the one that knew the speaker better, told him not to hold his breath.

“How long have you been here?” Ren asked, mostly for something to say. It didn't really matter.

“Long enough. Turn around.”

An hour ago, he wouldn’t have, just to spite him. Ren would have kept his back turned as a show of power. Ren would have put him in his place, which was at his side, kept but powerless. 

But now, Ren turned, wet hair shifting against his neck, boots uncomfortably waterlogged, and forced himself to look.

It was Hux, of course, looking worse than Ren had ever seen him. His tunic and greatcoat were gone, and he was stripped down to a white undershirt that was soaked to transparency, with sloppy and bloody bandages hastily applied around his waist. His ID tags still hung around his neck, visible without his tunic. He was leaning against a cane, one leg not bearing his weight, another bloody and obviously bacta-free bandage wrapped outside his jodhpurs at the knee. His free arm cradled a large blaster that was aimed at Ren. His expression was stony, and his skin was so pale, as pale as-

“Are you dead?”

“Of course I am. Didn’t Pryde tell you? He shot me. That was his job, wasn’t it?”

That had been part of Allegiant General Pryde’s directive, yes, when Ren promoted him and gave him all of Hux’s responsibilities. If Hux wasn’t with Ren, he was meant to be with Pryde, and Pryde was meant to keep Hux from treachery. All three of them knew he would not, so the order to terminate Hux had been implicit.

Had he thought it would work? Had he actually thought through giving a bloodthirsty former Imperial an excuse to kill Hux? 

No. He hadn’t really thought through anything. Not since Starkiller.

Before that, he and Hux had been together, in a sense - they'd fucked on and off for years, addiction marked with short dry periods of antagonism. Hux had been the closest thing to a friend Ren had in the First Order, though neither of them would have claimed their relationship was anything other than “occasional sex partners.” Ren still wasn’t sure that Hux was capable of more, though he’d relished catching the interest of someone so obviously dangerous and likely to turn on him. That had been exciting. 

The catching of Hux’s interest, the genuine curiosity and attention from a man who only ever feigned interest in other people, and feigned it poorly at that, had been almost as good as the sex. They had been quite close, and during the best times, they’d even occasionally shared quarters. Hux had been the one that started and ended their breaks, Ren had learned years ago it didn’t quite work the other way. But after Ren had killed his father, Ren had been the one that had unsubtly ended it.

He'd ended it permanently.

His vision blurred as he felt his chest tighten and his breath come short. He brought his hands up to hide his face, but aborted the gesture to clench his fists, feeling the water squeeze out of his gloves. Hux was dead. 

“Fuck. I-” He was sorry, but what was the point of that? “Not you too. I don’t- I should have felt it, and I didn’t. When you died. I should have felt it in the Force.” He tried to decide if that was true. It felt true, in the moment. He probably wouldn’t have thought he cared enough before, but. He dropped his gaze, feeling the tears slip down his already-soaked cheeks, then turned his head to contemplate the pounding waves. “It must have happened when my mother died. Or when I died.”

When he glanced back up, Hux had lowered the barrel of his blaster, and he looked almost comically alarmed. Ren clenched his jaw, looking down again, then wiping his face. Hux was never very good at this sort of thing, and apparently death hadn't changed him. Crying in front of him had always been a sure way to drive Hux away.

“I’m not actually dead, you idiot.” 

When Ren looked up again, Hux’s manner was once again hostile, the blaster aimed. “Pryde shot me. So did one of the traitors. They thought I was the Resistance leak. I wanted both of them to do it. I escaped after my execution had been documented and filed.”

Ren wiped at his wet cheek. “And you came here.”

“To ask you to stop. One last time. And I found you-” The blaster dipped again as Hux’s voice grew more agitated. “Having a one-sided conversation. With no one. Followed by throwing your weapon into an ocean. I traced your tracker and not your ship, which was lucky, because your ship’s gone. You let someone take it. So you have no comm and no way off this planet, or even out of this ocean. Your tracker is the only way to recover you, which is as good as a death sentence, because no one would give that order. You stopped sleeping, you stopped changing clothes and bathing. You believed I was a ghost that was speaking to you. You’ve been off the rails for years, and your disappearance will be mourned as much as mine.”

Ren blinked, the last of the tears clearing, and cocked his head to the side. Hux was alive, and had known most of that before he landed. Ren tried to process the implications, and couldn’t. 

“You’re here,” he repeated stupidly.

Hux’s expression tightened. “To shoot you myself! I saw footage taken by a Stormtrooper on Kijimi. Of your conversation, and fight. With yourself. Tell me why you did that.”

“I was with Rey,” he offered automatically, less defensive and angry than he had all the other times this had come up. “I was speaking with Rey through the Force.”

“And fighting her with your lightsaber. That’s new.”

“She was in my quarters.”

“I don’t care where you think she was,” Hux snarled, though Hux must have known she’d been in Ren’s quarters. It had been a major security breach. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t put you out of your misery right now!”

Ren blinked. He was miserable, still. Hux should. He knew Hux thought he was dangerously delusional. Hux had been trying to talk sense into him since Snoke had died. Hux had tried to get him to step down, to take a rest, to isolate himself and let him filter Ren’s orders in a way that others would understand. So no one would know. So that the damage Ren could do to the Order, once they'd taken galactic control, would be minimized. On good days, Ren knew it was so that Ren might get well, too.

Hux had tried, even after Ren had made it more than clear he would not continue their former arrangement. Hux had still spoken to him, even after all the fights, the Force violence, the promises from Ren that he would have Hux executed for insubordination. Hux had tried to get him to see sense when no one else would, long after everyone else realized Kylo Ren would never change. 

Ren had ignored all of it.

“Maybe you should put me out of my misery.” Ren smirked, just for a moment. “But if you really wanted to kill me, you would have shot me in the back while I wasn’t paying attention. You know you can’t kill me like this unless I allow it.”

That sounded more serious than Ren had intended, and they both sat in silence for several moments, the rain hissing around them. Hux kept the blaster pointed at him. A wave slammed hard into the side of the wreckage, and they both swayed with the impact as they were soaked again.

“Would you stop me?” Hux finally asked.

“No,” Ren answered simply, realizing he wasn’t really sure what Hux would do. He thought the Force wouldn’t have spared his life if Hux was going to shoot him minutes later, but maybe Hux did deserve to kill him. He didn’t think Hux wanted to hear any of that now, though.

Hux’s brow creased in disgust, and for a long moment, Ren was sure Hux would do it. But instead, he pitched the blaster awkwardly over the side of the platform and into the ocean.

Ren sat down, all the tension running out of him, all the things that had happened in the last ten minutes coming back in a rush. He covered his face with his wet gloves. He was freezing. He still didn’t really know what to do. Not with Hux, not with himself. Not aside from _the right thing_ , whatever that was.

“You’re not dead,” he repeated, because he could feel that Hux had drawn closer, could hear the clack of his cane and the slow step of his boot against the ancient platform. Hux coming here to be close to him was the first thing he’d been truly happy about in a long time. Hux wasn’t dead, and had come for him.

“I’m good at not dying,” Hux replied mildly, from just above him. 

“I’m not as good as I thought,” Ren said, matching his light tone and looking up. Hux arched his brows. He was as soaked as Ren now, and he reached up to push his loose hair out of his face, his arms looking too thin and pale out of his uniform. Ren hadn’t seen his hair down in ages, and was always surprised by how long it was. It was plastered to his skull, and the ends fell below the line of his jaw.

“So you’ve said,” Hux continued warily. “Apparently you died. Maybe the Force saved you. Just like the Force lets you have one-sided conversations with yourself, and led you to Palpatine's secret Sith fleet.”

“It did all those things. The fleet exists. You have to know I wasn’t delusional.” Ren didn’t know why he was bothering to defend himself. Maybe to make Hux realize he had never been as bad as Hux believed.

“Then it could tell you to kill me in my sleep tonight!” Hux shouted, angry again. “Whatever it is that you believe makes you do these things, you've lost control! Convince me not to leave you here, Ren. That you can go back to how you were.”

Ren leaned back, laying down on the soaked platform, baring his stomach. He knew Hux would see the hole in his tunic, the scar underneath.

“Run through with my own lightsaber. Whether you believe it or not.” He paused, knowing Hux wouldn’t believe it. Another cold wave hit both of them. He blinked and folded his arms beneath his head. Hux’s eyes were closed against the impact of the wave, expression pinched, but he looked back down at Ren after a moment, still angry.

“You know I didn’t have a scar there before. And I didn’t have a hole in my tunic before I came here.”

“I don’t know where your scars are anymore.” Hux’s eyes dropped back to Ren’s body, assessing. But Ren could sense him reluctantly accepting part of the truth. The scorched hole in his tunic was undeniable.

“Rey healed me. With the Force.”

Hux was instantly wary again. “You’ve never claimed that before.”

“No. But it’s true. She showed me. And healed me.” He sat back up, looking over Hux again. “I can probably do it to you, if you want.”

“No,” Hux answered quickly, subtly leaning away, alarm on his face again. Another long silence stretched between them. Ren wasn’t sure why Hux was rejecting the help. He obviously hadn't been treated for his wounds, and he must be in pain. Was the act of healing too intimate, when they hadn’t touched each other in almost two years? Or, rather, they had touched each other, but it had only been with the Force, and the one time Hux had managed to stab him. Violence, and estrangement.

So where did that leave them now?

“Would you settle for warmth?” Ren tried once more, resolved to leave the door closed forever if Hux refused.

Hux eyed him warily still. But Ren had used the Force to warm them both before, most recently in the early days of developing Starkiller. Hux had delighted in the fact that they could fuck in the woods, away from the tight, overcrowded habitation spaces. He’d knelt in the snow at Hux’s feet, Hux’s hand in his hair, both of them oblivious to the dangerously frigid temperatures. All that had mattered was Hux’s cock in his mouth and the feel of Hux’s arousal cresting over his senses, his control fraying as Ren took him deeper, sucked him harder. Ren had reveled in the thought that he was the only one that could do that to Hux. They’d both enjoyed it.

“I was shot in the knee,” Hux replied tightly, and it took Ren a moment to realize that Hux was accepting his offer of warmth, and asking for help to sit down. Ren put his hand up. Hux looked at it, then looked into Ren’s face, his eyes very blue in the gray daylight of the storm. Hux waited another moment, then took it.

Ren sensed that Hux had intended minimal contact between them, but he’d taken Ren’s hand, and Ren spread his legs and pulled Hux between them, Hux’s legs stretched out in front of him, his back pressed to Ren’s chest. Ren wrapped his arms around Hux and buried his face in the back of his head and took a deep inhale of his wet hair. He’d been soaked too thoroughly to smell like himself, but it was enough.

“Ren,” Hux said in warning.

“You won’t have to see my face this way.” Hux had never enjoyed Ren’s weaker moments, and this was one of them.

Hux remained stiff for several more seconds, then relaxed incrementally. Ren closed his eyes and concentrated, pulling the Force into both of them, feeling the warmth spread through his own body and sensing Hux relax further. The rain still pelted down, but it was more bearable now.

There were several minutes of comfortable silence. Ren was reluctant to break it, because Hux wouldn’t want to hear any of what he had to say. But he knew Hux was patient. His being here proved it. So Ren took a deep breath and broke the silence.

“My mother is dead.”

He felt Hux’s head turn beneath his face, not far enough to look at him. “She isn’t. The Resistance was still active as of three hours ago. We would have been notified.”

“She is. I felt it.” He squeezed Hux tighter, careful of his blaster wound. “I was fighting Rey. I’d beaten her. I was about to kill her, and I felt it. My mother reaching out to me in the Force. She stopped me. And then she died.”

He could sense Hux resisting the idea, not wanting to believe it. Not wanting to feed Ren’s delusions.

“Why would it matter to you if it’s true or not?” Ren asked, his old temper flaring briefly.

Somehow, Hux was unbothered by the anger. “It doesn’t. I don’t care whether she’s alive or dead. Not anymore.”

 _But it matters to you_ , Hux didn’t say. Ren relaxed again, and told himself to continue. Hux had to hear it all. Or, at least, Ren had to tell someone, and Hux had been the only person he’d really talked to in years. And he was here. “After… after my mother died. Rey ran me through with my own lightsaber. I was distracted. And then she healed me with the Force. And left.”

“In your ship,” Hux added sharply.

“In my ship,” Ren agreed. “And then. I. My dad. Came back. To tell me.”

He couldn’t finish. His throat tightened again, though he hadn’t teared up when his mother died, or when his father had appeared again. 

Hux had begun speaking, and Ren knew Hux wouldn’t want to hear the rest of what he had to say, but Ren had to get this part out, so he squeezed Hux harder and spoke over him. 

“He told me again that I knew what I had to do.”

Hux stiffened. “Well. I’m thankful my father doesn’t return from the dead to lecture me.”

“ _Hux_.”

Hux sighed, and Ren felt his acceptance, at least partially. “And what must you do?”

He said the thing he knew Hux would like first. “That I can’t be… this anymore. I can’t do what I was trying to do. I have to stop.”

Hux didn’t relax, as Ren thought he would. In fact, he grew angrier. “You asked the girl again, didn’t you? You went back to that scheme with the two of you ruling together.”

Ren’s eyes were still closed. He hated how it sounded when Hux said it, and also that it was true. But that hadn’t been what he’d been trying to say. “Yes,” he admitted reluctantly.

“She told you no.”

“She did. But. Hux. That’s not what I meant. I meant that you're right. I have to stop all of that.”

Hux was silent for several moments. “Well. You don’t often tell me I’m right.”

Hux still wasn’t entirely convinced, but it was something. It meant that Hux might be willing to give him another chance. But Ren also had to say the thing Hux didn’t want to hear. It was too large a task to accept, and he had hoped it would resolve itself into something concrete, rather than something bold and stupid that sounded impossible.

“Also. When I said I had to do something. There was something more than just listening to you.” He’d tried to say it lightly, as a joke, but it sounded strained to his own ears. He swallowed. “Palpatine needs to be stopped, and the two of us can do it. Rey and I. We’re matched for it, in the Force.”

Hux twisted in his arms, shifting around to face him, draping his leg over Ren’s thigh. If Hux was looking at him, Ren knew he was going to say something final. He was going to tell Ren no. He knew neither of them would back down. His throat tightened again, and he tried not to cry, because Hux wouldn’t want to see that. Hux would leave without him.

“Ren. Listen to yourself, you’re still-” He blinked rapidly and started again, more nervous than Ren had ever seen him. “You had your chance to stop Palpatine. You didn’t need the girl to do it. You had _everything_. All you had to do to stop Palpatine was not look for him. You failed. Let the girl handle it.” He held up a hand when Ren began to speak. “I told you that before.”

Of course he had. All of this was Ren’s fault. He needed to be someone different, so he said nothing, accepting the truth of it. He closed his eyes and clenched his jaw. Hux kept talking.

“The First Order is gone. There’s nothing the two of us can do about that. Palpatine took your power, and you took mine. We are both effectively dead, Ren. We need to accept that and move on. You did what you did, and I let it happen.”

“You didn’t let it happen! You tried to-”

“I could have killed you, and I didn’t.” Hux’s expression was hard. “I should have, and I didn’t, and we’re here now.”

They stared at each other. Ren had stopped warming them with the Force, and Hux was shivering, which Ren knew he would hate. Ren took his arms from around Hux and leaned back, stretching his aching muscles and bracing himself on his hands.

“I said I couldn’t be this anymore. You were right, I should have stopped a long time ago. I shouldn’t have-” He swallowed, realizing this was easier than he’d thought. “You were right about everything since Snoke died. I know you don’t believe in the Force, and that was a big part of it, but I also know what it looked like to you. And what it _was_.”

Hux’s expression cleared. “Good.” He glanced away briefly, then back, offering Ren his bare hand. He still looked nervous. Ren wondered where his gloves had gone. “Then we can go.”

 _Go_. Ren looked at his hand, but didn’t lean forward to take it. He looked into Hux’s face. 

“Not being the same person means I should give a shit about cleaning up my messes.”

Hux’s expression hardened, and his hand dropped. His fury washed over Ren like a tide. “My ship is not going anywhere near the Unknown Regions. And you don’t have one.”

Ren sat up. “Then take me somewhere I can steal one! Or, comm the Order, they’ll still pick me up, and I can pretend-” He heard the pleading tone in his voice, and he stopped himself. He dropped his head. Hux was silent for nearly a full minute before he responded, his voice tight and angry.

“I’m not taking you away from here so you can travel to your death. I’ve gone to considerable trouble to avoid that.”

Ren looked back up into Hux’s furious expression. It wasn’t diminished by how wet he was, that he was shivering, that his eyelashes were sticking together and he had water trickling down the line of his jaw. Hux was still angry, but what he’d just said was… Ren wondered where his life had gone so wrong that hearing that could make his chest ache, that it was the most he would ever hear about how Hux cared for him. That Hux loved him, however he’d said it.

“I know,” he said quietly, dropping his gaze again. He didn’t say anything else.

“Can’t you- _sense_ it?” Hux asked incredulously, realizing Ren wasn’t going to drop this. “If the girl dies? If Palpatine dies? If-" His mouth closed abruptly, and Ren smiled.

“If you died?” He considered. “Probably.”

Hux stared at him. He wanted to ask Ren if Hux would sense the opposite. His expression was growing more pinched with the effort of not doing so, of not _knowing_ something. Ren bent his head down to hide his own face. He didn’t know the answer. What if he left, and Hux never saw him again? Would Hux never know?

“I’d come back.”

“Not if you didn’t have a ship,” Hux managed tightly, somehow without his voice breaking. He shifted, turning and pressing his back into Ren’s chest again. They were silent for several more minutes, both wet and cold. Ren would have to press the issue, he would need to _leave_ , need to go to the Unknown Regions-

“Can’t you… do whatever you did before? What your uncle did, or what you did with the girl on Kijimi?”

Hux was the one pleading now. He was talking about Force projection. Ren was about to tell him that wasn’t how the Force worked, his automatic rejection whenever Hux made any sort of Force-related suggestion. But then he stopped to consider it.

“Okay,” he admitted reluctantly. “I can just watch and see, and maybe Rey can do it herself. But if there’s trouble, and I have to go-”

“Whatever.” Hux cut him off, leaning forward and bending his good leg. “Do that, then. But we’re doing it from a place that’s warm and dry.”

Ren paused, bending his own knees, preparing to stand. His mood had lifted with his resolve, and the full import of Hux’s arrival had sunk in. He grinned at the back of Hux’s head.

“So are you asking me to run away with you?”

It was a testament to how badly Hux wanted to leave that he turned around, scowling, and answered with no denial.

“As long as we’re running away to a desert, yes.”

* * *

When Ren woke, it was to the cold desert night in the tiny quarters of Hux’s ship. Hux was straddling him awkwardly, his bad leg draped over the edge of the narrow bed, his mouth over Ren’s, forcing breath into his lungs. Ren gasped, hands automatically going to Hux’s waist. On his inhale, Hux pulled back, face unreadable in the dark of the powered-down ship, the soft tips of his hair dragging against Ren’s face.

“Ren?” His voice cracked. Suddenly, Ren could sense his panic and fear. He’d thought Ren had died.

“I’m fine,” he croaked, his voice unsteady. He cleared his throat and tried again, voice still weak, but sounding better. “I’m fine.” He paused. “Palpatine’s dead.”

“I don’t care about that, I-” Hux stopped, then shifted off Ren, rolling to the side of the bed. It took Ren another moment to remember that they were both naked, and that it was very cold without the life support powered on. He was with Hux, they were somewhere on Jakku. He'd been certain he'd died, that he'd become One with the Force. Now, he still had a corporeal body. He flexed his fingers, feeling the tension of bone and muscle. It was so dark that he wasn't sure if his vision had returned. But he felt the breath fill his lungs, and he could sense Hux's lifeforce next to him, his tension and rapid breathing and how near he was to a breakdown.

It hit him. Hux had been… reviving him. And it had worked.

Ren rolled onto his side, wrapping an arm around Hux’s waist. He put his mouth to the side of his head. “I'm fine." He paused, still sensing Hux's labored breathing. "Did you know when it happened?”

Hux nodded, but didn’t say anything. Ren relaxed against him, going through the events in his mind one more time.

“Palpatine’s dead,” he repeated. “A final death. The Sith and the Jedi along with him.”

“I told you, I don’t care about that.”

“I know.” Ren was silent for another long moment. It felt like a dream now, fading away. A chapter of his life that was over. It was that simple. Hux was shivering, so Ren warmed them with the Force again. It didn't stop Hux's shaking.

“I had to fight the Knights of Ren. I didn’t have a decent weapon, because I had to Force project from Jakku.” He said the last sharply, because he’d been annoyed at the time, and it had been a stupid thing to do.

"You took my pistol."

"That doesn't count. Not even you would have tried to shoot the Knights of Ren with a pistol. I’m still Supreme Leader of the First Order. That would have been enough to let me steal a rifle.”

“You wouldn't have. You’ve said before that blasters are barbaric.”

“They are.”

He felt Hux sigh. “Please. You are a monster. I assume you beat them anyway, even without a body?”

“I killed them. Had to borrow a lightsaber from Rey. They punched me.” He raised a hand to his eye, which was sore, and licked his lip to taste blood. Apparently those injuries carried over. Good to know, if he ever had to do that again.

"They punched you, and you killed them. It sounds like you were at a serious disadvantage."

“Rey was the one who beat Palpatine," Ren continued, ignoring him. "It killed her. So. I healed her.”

Hux twisted in his arms. Ren couldn’t see him, but felt his sadness and terror abating. “Is that what killed you? The effort of bringing her back to life?”

“Yeah. Got caught up in the moment.” Ren grabbed Hux, pulling him closer. “I kissed her when I did it.”

“Oh? What was that like?”

“Not like kissing you,” which was something they’d never said to one another. He could sense that Hux was still thinking about him being cold and not breathing, and that he’d woken up to the sense of Ren being dead, so Ren kissed him, longer and softer than anything they'd done before. It had been so long since Ren tasted him, and he'd forgotten.

Ren wanted to say it, needed to say it. He’d been terrible to Hux, and what they’d had before was hardly the basis for what Hux had done to help him now. He knew how Hux felt. He knew Hux had been partially (and possibly largely) motivated by saving the First Order, most of the time.

But that wasn’t why Hux was with him on Jakku now.

He knew Hux didn’t want to hear any of that, though. Kylo pulled back, taking two deep two breaths and giving himself a moment to calm down and think of something acceptable to say.

“I’m glad you’re relentless. And patient.” He tried to say it as lightly as possible, but Hux still stiffened in offense. Ren suddenly remembered something else Hux had said that sounded odd, and he continued. “Were you really the Resistance leak?”

Hux pushed him away, more offended now. “Of course I fucking wasn’t! But that was the easiest way to get the prisoners off the ship without going into a long explanation. And I knew Pryde would believe it.”

Ren closed his eyes and pulled Hux closer again. Hux allowed it, settling against him. “So you said it to Pryde?”

“No. Pryde assumed. I knew he would. I was prepared for that.”

“But you did say it to the prisoners.” Ren had a hard time picturing the words even leaving Hux’s mouth. It would have been far too strange to believe he would betray the Order on that level, though maybe he would have.

“Yes. I told them- I didn’t care about the war. But I cared that you lost.”

Ren smiled and buried his face in Hux’s hair again. Ren wasn’t sure why Hux had chosen Jakku, of all places. There weren’t any ‘freshers. He suspected Hux’s resolve to stay in a hot, dry place would not last. But right now, his hair smelled strongly of his skin slightly stale sweat, and Ren reveled in the scent of him.

“Hux. Did you know? I won.”

Hux shifted against him, leaning closer. “Shut up.”


End file.
